Amateur Poker Tour head Matt Sowash sentenced to five years

Matt Sowash, the former head of the Amateur Poker Tour, has been sentenced to five years in prison and five years of probation for illegal actions related to his attempts to solicit investors in a new poker tour that would have held tournaments in bars.

Sowash and business partner Andrew Hicks (who has yet to face trial) were arrested in July and charged with five counts of felony securities fraud.

Their previous business venture, the APT, shut down in 2007 after an angry investor came up with a plan to kill Sowash by kidnapping him and putting his legs inside a box filled with rattlesnakes. That investor has since cut a deal.